


Intuition

by Daisies_and_Roses



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Brief mentions of periods, Doctor Simmons, Extreme grief, Five Stages of Grief, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Irresponsibility, May is a good mom, May loves Daisy no matter what, Mental Health Issues, Poor Daisy misses her dad, Pregnancy Tests, Unplanned Pregnancy, brief mentions of drinking, mama may
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26259709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daisies_and_Roses/pseuds/Daisies_and_Roses
Summary: A one-shot set after the season 5 finale and before Daisy and Simmons go to space. How does Daisy cope with the grief of losing Coulson, her father figure, and Fitz? What happens when she has a scare and is forced to seek the advice of her also-grieving teammates? (Bad summary, I know, but you'll like it) Rated Teen for a few adult hints and concepts.
Relationships: Jemma Simmons & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Melinda May & Jemma Simmons & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Melinda May & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Phil Coulson & Melinda May, Phil Coulson & Skye | Daisy Johnson
Kudos: 23





	Intuition

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING: This story is very "girly" and has a lot of female topics involved that could potentially make males (or anyone) uncomfortable, so if you're offended or anything by this type of thing maybe don't read. I did do lots of research for this but I am not a trained medical professional in any way so there might be some inaccuracies in this story.
> 
> *I do apologize if any of the show's chronology is off

It was a typical Monday morning at the Lighthouse. Daisy woke up, groggy as usual, and checked her laptop for signs of anything suspicious. She's checked her laptop every normal morning since she was sixteen, so she wasn't about to stop now.

Upon finding the usual nothing, she yawned and rolled out of bed, throwing on her SHIELD training outfit (tank and sweats) and brushing her newly-blonde hair and teeth. She grabbed a power bar from the common room on the way to the gym and made sure not to say hi to anyone.

Ever since four weeks ago when Philip Coulson, her Director, her mentor, her father figure died, Daisy had been bottling all her emotions up. She'd been through a lot in the past years, and this was the tip of the iceberg. It was time for her to stuff it all into the bottle and forget about it.

The base seemed even emptier nowadays. Sure, Mack had started recruiting some new agents, but it wasn't the same without Coulson. Daisy didn't have someone to go to when she needed advice anymore. May was far too busy grieving herself, Mack was busy as Director, Yo-Yo and Daisy's relationship was strained, and Simmons was, well, also grieving.

Grief was very much present at the Lighthouse. Nothing was the same anymore.

As Daisy punched the punching bag, it wasn't the first time she noticed the nausea. It had already been lasting on and off for a week or two. But it was overwhelming this time and she had to stop her workout for a moment to get a sip of water. When that didn't help she downed a vertigo pill, which took another good half an hour to work. Once she felt better, she continued her workout, sweating more than usual. But she shrugged it off, thinking it was just from being out of shape from hiding herself in her bunk the first few days after Coulson died. Okay, the first week.

She stopped her workout a few minutes earlier than usual, toweling her sweaty face and neck off. She found herself downing three large water bottles then rushing immediately to the bathroom.

Daisy was confused when she got done, splashing her face with water. She turned off the sink and leaned away, looking at herself in the mirror. Through her tight tank top, she could've sworn she saw some belly fat showing up.

She tried to reassure herself that it was just from her lack of activity lately and that she needed to up her fitness, but she couldn't stop thinking in the back of her mind that there was more to this than that. She just had a gut feeling.

Shrugging it off and stuffing it into the omnipresent emotional bottle, Daisy changed into some clean, loose-fitting clothes and decided to see if she could help Simmons with anything in the lab. On her way there she remembered how she'd missed her cycle this month. She just thought it was from the stress and grief but what if it was something more?

The girls' conversations were very awkward nowadays, thanks to the huge elephant in the room called Fitz's death. Jemma had been working non-stop on figuring out the possibilities and logistics of finding Fitz in space. Daisy had offered multiple times to go on the big mission with her, but right now she was beginning to be reluctant. Yes, she wanted to get away from SHIELD and the memory of Coulson, but she also wasn't herself anymore. That feeling, that _intuition_ she had wasn't going away...

"What can I do for you, Daisy?" Jemma asked her friend nonchalantly as she busily worked, switching from a computer to her notepad to a microscope to a device then to something else Daisy did not recognize.

Daisy sighed, putting a hand on the back of her desk chair. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Simmons turned to Daisy, raising her eyebrows. Daisy thought she might even smirk, but that was wishful thinking these days. " _You_ want to help _me_ with..." She waved her hands around. "... _this_?!"

Daisy rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "You know, I used to be one of the brains of the team."

Jemma had already turned back to her computer. "Yep, and now you're the biggest brawn."

"Yeah, _biggest_ ," Daisy mumbled to herself, noticing how bloated she was feeling. She hadn't even eaten that much lately.

Jemma sighed. "Well, I guess you can supervise and run this algorithm for me. It might track the location of Enoch's ship, on a small level." She slid a small laptop to her friend, and Daisy picked it up, watching it closely as the numbers and symbols moved across her screen.

Eventually, her mind trailed off to what was going on in her own life. She was nauseous. She was easily winded. She felt bloated and was starting to feel some back pain.

She knew what was going on, she was just denying it.

"Daisy!" Simmons shouted, snapping her fingers in front of her computer to get the Inhuman's attention.

Daisy shook her head to snap out of her reverie and smiled. "Yeah?"

Jemma rolled her eyes. "You aren't paying a _bit_ of attention to it. You're supposed to alert me when anything pops up!"

She swallowed. "Oh, yeah..."

Simmons rolled her eyes once more before going back to whatever she was doing. "You know, Daisy, you aren't the only one who lost someone recently."

That hit home. Daisy roughly tossed the laptop onto the counter and stood from her stool. "You know what, Jemma?! You have it a _lot_ better than I do." She approached Simmons and poked her shoulder with an accusing finger, her face ridden with anger. "YOURS IS STILL OUT THERE SOMEWHERE! MINE IS DEAD! FOREVER!"

Tears streamed down her face and she stormed out of the lab, her fists and teeth clenched.

* * *

Daisy stared at her own vomit in the toilet. There was no way. Absolutely _no way_. But her swollen belly, her backaches, her morning sickness, her missed cycle, and everything else said otherwise.

Just from the shock in itself, Daisy leaned over and vomited into the trash can next to the toilet. How could she _possibly_ be pregnant? She hadn't dated for years and as far as she knew she hadn't been out recently.

Oh, God, except for that one time. She wasn't in the best emotional state and she left the base to go to a bar in River's End. She did remember getting drunk and having to call Yo-Yo to pick her up and drive her back, but she didn't remember anything else about that night.

There was no way she met someone...unless she _did_.

Someone knocked on the door. "You're taking forever!" came the voice of one of Mack's newest female recruits. Oh, if she knew who was inside that bathroom, she would _not_ be yelling.

"I'll be out in a minute!" Daisy shouted, irritated. God, why did everything annoy her these days?!

Daisy made _sure_ to give the horrified junior agent waiting outside her meanest glare when she walked out.

Not knowing who to go to for advice, Daisy cowered to her bunk, slamming the door and locking it. She took a hot shower to take her mind off of everything and crawled into her bed, turning all the lights off and searching the web on her phone.

What did this mean for her as an agent? She _certainly_ couldn't go to space with Jemma anymore, which bummed her out, but she also couldn't be in the field until _months_ after her baby was born.

Just thinking of a baby made Daisy want to throw up again.

Would she be stuck at a desk job for a _year_? Is that what it would take?

Or should she even keep the baby, considering she had _no_ remote idea who the father was?

Oh God, so many decisions to make...

Dammit, someone was texting her. Daisy groaned, sitting up and scoffing when she saw it was May.

_You're needed in the control room,_ it said.

"Can't it wait a minute?" Daisy said out loud as she typed it and sent it.

_Daisy, you've been in your bunk all day. Please come out. I thought you were past this phase already,_ was May's response.

Daisy rolled her eyes and finally managed to get out of bed. She didn't want to worry her teammates, but she also didn't want them to notice her struggling.

When she got to the main Lighthouse room, she was met with Mack and May and the stupid newbies.

"Glad you could join us," Mack said, his arms crossed as he turned back to the computers, beginning to explain some things to his agents.

Daisy walked up to May. "What did you need me for?!" she whispered.

May didn't take her eyes off the big screen in the front of the room. "Nothing in particular. Just wanted to check on you."

Daisy gaped for a moment, angry. " _May_."

The older woman shrugged. "Jemma said you all got into a big fight and I wanted to make sure you were okay. You tend to close yourself off after emotional breakdowns."

Daisy pressed her lips together angrily, trying _very_ hard not to lash out at May. "That was _not_ an emotional breakdown, just- "

"An emotional breakdown," May echoed.

Daisy scoffed and turned away from her former SO, setting her jaw in anger.

"Something is going on with you that you aren't telling anyone, Daisy," May observed a few minutes later. She put a hand on her shoulder, only making the young woman jerk away in anger. "You can't keep hiding your problems. Nobody sees you as- "

"Since when did you become the SHIELD therapist? Did Andrew rub off on you too much, huh?" Daisy snapped, stepping away from May. She noticed May's hurt expression but ignored it. "Or was it Coulson?" she asked quieter.

May clenched her teeth. _It's just her breaking down again,_ May told herself. But she knew Daisy's words were right. She needed to stop pushing.

Before she could say something else, Daisy was already gone.

* * *

Daisy had no idea what to do. She was truly lost. She had to throw up a few times on her way to her bunk again but it didn't matter.

She had _no_ idea what to do.

She decided to give it a few days before doing anything. She didn't want to sneak a pregnancy test from the lab for fear of being discovered. She did some incognito research on her laptop in the meantime and found virtually no advice. Turns out fellow humans are the best advice-givers.

She found herself regretting not telling May when she had the chance, but it was over and there was nothing she could do about it now.

Except maybe, you know, go to her.

Daisy found May in the otherwise-empty training room one afternoon and decided it was as good a time as any to tell her.

"May..." she began.

"You finally ready to talk?" the older woman asked as she turned off her elliptical, stepping down from the pedals.

Daisy looked up from her feet to make eye contact with May. "How did you know something was up with me?"

May bent down to grab her water bottle, unscrewing the cap and taking a sip. She swallowed it. "It was obvious. You had been getting a bit better these last few days, and then after your fight with Jemma everything escalated and you shut yourself out again. I knew something must've been up, because you wouldn't snap at someone for nothing."

Daisy sighed, seating herself on the bench and putting one foot on the bench, hugging her knee. "I've been getting so easily annoyed lately. I've been snapping at everyone. I'm sorry, May, I- "

"Just tell me what's going on," she said soothingly, sitting next to her on the bench and wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

Daisy shut her eyes and sighed, shaking her head in dismay. "I was feeling sick during my workout the other day, and I noticed I was getting...bigger."

May saw where this was going so she let the girl continue, looking around to make sure the room was still empty.

Daisy sighed again. "I never thought this was possible, May, but I...I'm..." She bit her lip, opening her eyes and locking them with May. "...I think I might be pregnant."

May sucked in a breath, squeezing Daisy's shoulder as she shifted her weight on the bench. This was a lot to process. "This is none of my business, but do you have any idea who the father could be?"

Daisy shook her head, the tears beginning to come out now. "No, I..." She sniffled. "...I have no idea!" Her voice broke and she buried her face in her hands as May rubbed her back. "I left the base _once_ and got drunk, and now I'm pregnant?! I have all the symptoms, May, it's true," she mumbled, the words muffled from her hands covering her face.

May pulled Daisy closer, stroking her head. "We will figure this out, okay? It's going to be alright."

"You can't just say that!" Daisy hissed, the cries and sobs escaping her throat constantly. "What if it's _not_?! What if I kill my baby from my powers? What if _I_ die or Jemma does because I can't be there to protect her in space?!"

After a few minutes of letting Daisy calm down, May spoke, "Are you sure you..."

"I'm not sure," Daisy confirmed. "I don't remember anything from that night."

May pressed her lips together, standing from the bench and helping Daisy to her feet as well. "I think we should let Simmons know. We don't want to shock her right before she leaves."

Daisy swallowed. "She'll make me do all these tests and will sideline me for months..."

"Come on, let's get you a pregnancy test stick first," she whispered a moment later, helping her to stand.

* * *

Daisy scowled when she left the bathroom stall, staring intently at the little stick in her hand. "It says I'm not pregnant," she said, confused. That didn't make any sense. She looked up at May who, too, looked confused. "Is it possible to have a false negative on these things?!"

May narrowed her eyes, looking at the test. "Yes, it is. These aren't always accurate. Plus, you could be not far along enough yet."

Call it mother's intuition, but May had a feeling something wasn't adding up here. "I think Simmons should run a few tests just to make sure."

Daisy wanted to disagree but she was too emotional to have the energy to snap at her anymore.

Once they got to the lab, Simmons had to stop herself from looking surprised when she saw the pair, Daisy's face red and puffy with tears.

"What is it?" she asked gently when they walked up to her.

Daisy looked up at Jemma. "I'm sorry for- "

"I'm sorry too," Simmons interrupted. She sighed and caressed Daisy's arm, hoping to comfort her, since she'd clearly been crying recently. "I shouldn't have been so hard on you. We're all going through a lot and I forget that sometimes."

Daisy nodded, accepting the apology.

After a slightly-awkward silent moment, Jemma spoke, rubbing her hands together: "So, what can I do for you? I have a short break while some systems run."

May and Daisy eyed each other, the latter nodding. "I..." Daisy started, then sighed. "I was wondering if you could maybe run a blood test. I, uh, Jemma, I..."

"What is it?!" Simmons interrupted, getting anxious.

Daisy swallowed. "I wanted to see for sure whether I was pregnant."

Jemma's eyes widened and one could practically _see_ her heart race from the outside. "Daisy- "

"There was just one night a few weeks ago when I got drunk and I can't remember anything from then and...Even though the test stick said I wasn't, I just have this feeling..."

Jemma touched her arm. "It's going to be okay, Daisy. We'll support you with whatever decision you make on this."

She was being too nice to her. Daisy felt like she didn't deserve all this. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

Simmons bit her lip. "I'd like to do an ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy or deny it if the test was correct, and we can take it from there. Hey..." She took Daisy's shoulders, forcing her friend to make eye contact with her. "...I'll take care of this. Everything is going to be okay."

* * *

Once the ultrasound was all set up, Daisy was left sitting on the exam table with May by her side. She had told the older woman repeatedly that she could leave and continue whatever she was doing, but May insisted she stay.

Simmons squinted at the screen, an unrecognizable expression on her face. Her brow was intensely furrowed, her mouth pulled into a tight purse.

"What is it, Jemma?" Daisy asked, beginning to get nervous.

Simmons opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. The scowl remained on her face as she looked up from the computer, looking Daisy over with confusion.

"Simmons," May said slowly.

Jemma bit her lip and looked at the pair. "Daisy, you, the results..."

"What?!" Daisy asked, getting impatient.

"You're not pregnant," Simmons blurted out. "There is no fetus on my screen and your negative test results confirm this."

A shocked but relieved expression washed across Daisy's face. "Then how..."

Jemma swallowed, removing the wand from Daisy's skin and setting it in its resting spot. "Pseudocyesis."

"Pseudo... _what_?!"

Simmons sighed, clicking a button to print the results before turning off the machine, handing Daisy a clean tissue to wipe the gel off her stomach. "Phantom pregnancy. Sometimes, a person can exhibit all the symptoms of pregnancy because of a chemical imbalance, or even psychological trauma. You, Daisy, have been through a _lot_ of trauma lately. This might've been how your body processed everything."

Daisy didn't know what to say. Yeah, she was _extremely_ relieved, but what did this mean for her _now_?!

"So, what now?" she asked quietly as Jemma took off her gloves, cleaning up all the trash.

"You go back to your normal routine. Focus on convincing yourself and your body that you're not expecting a child. I'd suggest seeing a psych- "

" _No_ ," Daisy said bluntly.

"Daisy..." May began.

The Inhuman shook her head as she rolled her shirt back over her belly. "I won't be seen as insane. I never _wanted_ a baby and..."

Jemma let out a deep sigh. "We can't force you to, Daisy, but you need to be better about letting your emotions out sometimes. Clearly, if your body went to _this_ extreme, you need to do _something_ different."

Daisy closed her eyes, sighing. "I'm sorry for worrying you all."

"Hey," May said sternly, squeezing her shoulder and making her open her eyes to meet hers. "We are _always_ here for you. We can get through this grief _together_. No more bottling things up. Okay?!"

A corner of Daisy's lip rose. "Okay."

The three women pulled into a group hug, silently comforting each other as their hearts beat in unison. It had been difficult for all of them after everything, but they would always be there for each other.

**Author's Note:**

> Fin
> 
> Review with constructive criticism! I'm not planning on any more chapters to this story but if you really want one or have some good suggestions just let me know :)


End file.
